"Why does that happen whenever you talk about him?" When I looked into Daniel's dark eyes, there was nothing but tender care in them.

I didn't have an explanation for it. My father's death still hurt. A lot. And before now, I'd been terrified of talking about it. But Daniel was here and he wanted to listen.

For two years, I had to deal with the grief alone. My mom has her own concerns which piled on top of mine. If I said it wasn't choking me up, I'd be lying.

"I—I guess I got used to not talking about him. It's like a reflex now." I paused to look at the tall white vase next to Daniel's trophy case, taking in a deep breath. The silence between us urged me to continue.

"The only sport I was familiar with was baseball. My dad and I would play for hours until mom had to seize our ball and hide it in the attic." A smile crept onto my lips and sat there, comfortable in the atmosphere. "I always won. Dad took it upon himself to ensure it. But I knew he was going easy on me because he knew how much of a hard head I was."

A memory popped up in my head and I shifted my gaze to Daniel only to find him smiling too. "I was terrible at it though, because of how much he spoiled me. He hated to see me sad and would often steal cookies from my mom's jar just to cheer me up. Goodness knows how much mom hated her cookies going missing but she loved him too much to complain. And she loved that he loved me."

I rubbed my forearms, feeling goosebumps rise on them. Maybe it was the cold, or probably the fact that my story was just about to get darker.

Mom's love was what drove her off the edge. She channelled all her strength to loving her family and when it fell apart, she simply had to channel that strength elsewhere.

"The cookie thing didn't stop as I grew. I was a proud daddy's girl. One saturday morning when I was seventeen, dad had just stolen me another cookie to bribe me into doing the dishes while he rushed to the store to get groceries." I pause to lick my lips and steady my breathing. My throat thickened like it just couldn't bear to finish the story.

I shut my eyes. "He never came back." I didn't get to see Daniel's reaction, but I did feel his arms around me as the tears hit. Sniffling, I continued. "Turns out he was hit by a truck on his way back and the impact was so much that it drove him right into an electric pole." A pause, a sob, and tears followed. Lots of them. "He didn't even make it to the hospital."

Something in my chest clenched and the next thing I knew, the side of my face was pressed into Daniel's chest and I cried my heart out while he just held me. It took a minute before I could form words again but I didn't pull away.

"It wasn't just my dad that died that day, my mom did too, and so did the love in our house. It broke her. Blinded her so much that she couldn't see me, she still can't. I found her doing drugs a week after Dad's funeral and she's not stopped since."

"I'm sorry," Daniel said into my hair.

"You don't have to be sorry for me," I murmured against him. "It's been over two years. I'm a big girl now."

His hold on me tightened, his jaw shifting at the top of my head. "I'm not sorry for you. I'm sorry you had to endure all of that alone."

The sound of something blowing up erupted from the television and rippled through the air but neither of us flinched. We'd fallen into this comfortable silence and I wasn't ready to let go of it yet.

Or specifically, now that we'd began, I wanted to know more about him.

"What was your dad like?" I found myself asking.

Daniel exhaled before speaking. "He was nothing like yours, unfortunately," he said with a small chuckle that reverberated from his chest to mine. "He wasn't so much of a family man which I guess was why he and mom had just me. But that made him pretty strict. He pushed me to be the best I could and wouldn't talk to me for days of I messed up. And that's saying a lot because he left when I was six."

"He'd always wanted me to play basketball. Took me to all the games he could before I could even talk properly. Luckily, I ended up loving the sport, probably because of his consistency. And mom, she fell in love with that consistency. Despite all his flaws, he loved her right back. And I just didn't want to let him down." He pauses for a second while my brain processed every single word.

"It was the consistency that killed him though." I felt him stiffen up under my touch and, almost instinctively, my hands tightened around him.

"You don't have to talk about it right now," I offered. "I'm not going anywhere."

Somewhere at the back of my ming, the reminder of how much time I had left with him went off. I was choosing to be open to anything which meant I still had hope.

If I told him about everything, there was the slight chance that he'd forgive me and I'd actually stay. But then there was the nagging probability that he wouldn't.

"He was a workaholic and he had cardiac issues. Bad combo if you ask me." Daniel's voice cut off my thoughts and forced the voice in my head to shut up. "They got worse but he didn't care enough to take care of himself. One day we got a call that he was at the hospital. He'd suffered a major heart attack. That was the last thing mom let me find out before I found her taking down all his pictures some days later."

For the first few beats that passed I didn't say anything. All the mean things I'd said and thought of him simply replayed in my head. The first time me met, Chanelle, the contract. Being with him right now made me feel like a sham.

Eventually, I shifted my head to plant a small kiss right in the middle of his chest before snuggling into him. "You're so brave."

I knew he was smiling even before I pulled away. Welcoming the warmth his eyes held and the cold that had enveloped me now, I felt my heart soar.

"You're brave too," he said. However, I felt anything but.

Should I tell him?

My pulse quickened when he closed the distance between us and pressed his lips to mine. By some miraculous force of nature, I found myself in his lap in the next second. My fingers brushed through his hair and I sighed at how soft they felt. How good we fit in each other's embrace.

Daniel pulled away with a new fire in his eyes, putting his forehead against mine. "I think I'm falling for you."

I was set ablaze. My hands had moved to his shoulders by now and I was probably wearing the goofiest smile on the planet. In this moment, nothing else in the world mattered. Not Chanelle or my many issues. Not even the urge to blurt everything about the contract to him. We were perfect just like this.

"It's a good thing we're on the same page then," I muttered, wrapping my arms around him once more and dissolving into his chest.

At the back of my mind, the voice came again.

Mission accomplished-ish

~

I woke up the next morning in Daniel's bed with my arms around him in a vice grip. He was already awake, staring down at me while my brain booted.

"Good morning," he sang in a hoarse voice, a smile tugging on his lips.

I groaned and untangled my hands from around him, placing a hand on his chest to lift myself a little. Then I squinted at him and rubbed my eyes. He chuckled.

After my waking up ritual, I said, "hey."

Daniel shifted into a sitting position, dragging me up to his chest and planting a kiss on my forehead that warmed me up. Ugh. I didn't want to go anywhere. When I had my personal human pillow why would I want to move a muscle.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table  and a text flashed on the screen.

Daniel picked it up and handed it to me. After thanking him, I proceeded to read the text.

Barbie:

Five days to go, Noah!:) I might as well pay you right away. You're doing so well.

Her words hit me like a whack in the face. Five days. I had five more days with Daniel. Five days of him supplying me with coffee daily. Of him dropping me off without my consent and rambling about chocolate latte. Five days to reminisce about the night we just had. Five days till I had to give him up.

Fuck.

I groaned and rolled off the bed landing with a thud in a heap on the floor. Daniel sprung to his feet and swept me off mine in one beat, checking for bruises. "Why the fuck would you do that? Are you hurt?"

Yes. "No." I'd landed on my back so apart from the after shocks of the impact, there was nothing. Unless you wanted to count my aching heart. I doubted anything could cure that.

"Put me down. You have to get to practice, and I have class," I told him to which he replied with a shrug.

"It's eight thirty in the morning, we're not hurrying anywhere."

Eight thirty? I had class by ten! "Put me down, you nitwit! I'll be late."

That worked. He placed me carefully on my feet like he was scared I'd fall flat on my face. After a few scans, he declared that I was good to go and it activated the meta-me.

I turned him down flat when he asked to shower with me. Daniel had brought in my bag pack last night—how thoughtful. So I'd grabbed my jeans and dashed into the bathroom. After showering, I threw on the shirt from last night and my jeans then I got out and waited for Daniel in the living room.

A couple of minutes later, we'd grabbed breakfast from a restaurant and we're on our way to my hostel.

I took a bite of my burger the same time Daniel took a sip of his strawberry frappuccino.

"Don't drink and drive," I told him.

He snorted and made a show of taking a long sip of his drink. "I can do whatever the fuck I want."

I chuckled and sipped my own coffee, humming to the tune my taste buds danced to. Chocolate. Daniel shivered and focused on the road. For the rest of the drive, I tried annoying him with my chocolate latte. And all I got was indignation.

When he pulled the car to a stop in front of the hostel, he placed one hand against the side of my face and stole a kiss from my lips. A kiss that I felt in my soul and shimmies. He leaned away with a grin before plastering another kiss on my cheek and staring at me like he couldn't believe I was real.

"I—" he began to say but caught himself. A smile blooming on his lips. "I'll see you later?"

I put my lips in a straight line to hide my wide happy smile and nodded. "I'll text you."

Getting out of the car and shooting him a wave, I felt a pang go off in my heart. As he drove away, Chanelle's text pinned itself in my mind.

Five more days till I had to wake up.